Sekiyado Castle
Encyclopedia
Japanese castle
' were fortresses composed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century...
located in Noda
Noda, Chiba
is a city located in the far northwestern corner Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2011, the city had an estimated population of 155,431 and a population density of 1500 persons per km²...
, northwestern Chiba Prefecture
Chiba Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. At the end of the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
, Sekiyado Castle was home to the Kuse clan, daimyō
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of Sekiyado Domain
Sekiyado Domain
was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Shimōsa Province , Japan. It was centered on Sekiyado Castle in what is now the city of Noda, Chiba....
.
History
Sekiyado is located at the confluence of the Tone RiverTone River
The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length and has a drainage area of...
and the Edogawa River, and was thus a strategic location controlling river traffic in the northern Kantō region
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
, as well as the northeastern approaches to Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
. A fortification was built on this location in the early Muromachi period
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
by either Yadoya Mitsusuke (1395-1438) or Yadoya Shigesuke (d. 1512). It was destroyed during a campaign by the Late Hōjō clan
Late Hojo clan
The ' was one of the most powerful warrior clans in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region.The clan is traditionally reckoned to be started by Ise Shinkurō, who came from a branch of the prestigious Ise clan, a family in the direct employment of the Ashikaga...
of Odawara
Odawara, Kanagawa
is a city located in western Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 198,466 with a population density of 1,740 persons per km² . The total area was .-Geography:...
to conquer the Kantō region from 1565-1574.
After the Hōjō clan was destroyed in the Battle of Odawara, they were supplanted by Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...
, the castle was reconstructed by Matsudaira Yasumoto in 1590.
Under the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
, the course of the Tone River was diverted in 1654 to prevent flooding in Edo. The new mouth of the Tone River was moved from Edo Bay to north of the Bōsō Peninsula
Boso Peninsula
thumb|Locationthumb|Landsat image with high-resolution data from Space Shuttle is a peninsula in Chiba prefecture on Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean....
, which greatly hindered river transportation. The daimyō
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of Sekiyado Domain
Sekiyado Domain
was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Shimōsa Province , Japan. It was centered on Sekiyado Castle in what is now the city of Noda, Chiba....
, Itakura Shigetsune, took advantage of this situation to construct a canal joining the Tone River with the Edogawa River at Sekiyado, which greatly shortened the voyage and enhanced the revenues of his domain.
When the castle was reconstructed in 1671, the new donjon was constructed as a copy of the three-story Fujimi Yagura
Yagura
Yagura is the Japanese word for "tower" or "turret." The word is most often seen in reference to structures within Japanese castle compounds, but can be used in a variety of other situations as well. The bandstand tower erected for Bon Festival is often called a yagura, as are similar structures...
of Edo Castle
Edo Castle
, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...
.
With the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
, the new Meiji government ordered the destruction of all former feudal fortifications. The outer buildings of the castle had already been lost in a fire in 1870, and the remaining structures were abandoned in compliance with this directive in 1872, and pulled down by 1875.
The current donjon was reconstructed in 1995 to boost local tourism and to function as an annex to the local Sekiyado Castle Museum. However, the reconstructed buildings are not on the original foundations, nor are the buildings historically accurate, as they have been modeled on “typical” examples from other castles.